Page 23 of Moon Craving

Court. Jolenta had boasted of flirting with numerous men in attendance.

She had told Abigail that she had gone so far as to allow a few of those men to kiss

her. When Abigail had expressed dismay at such wanton behavior, Jolenta had merely

laughed.

Since her sister was rarely willing to spend time in Abigail's company, she did not

plague Jolenta about it further. Only she had wondered if her sister's forward ways had

been the reason Jolenta had returned early this year from Court.

Unlike her wayward, if courageous sister, Abigail rarely spoke to the opposite sex.

She had never touched a man or even wanted to. She had been touched for the first time

in memory by a male when her stepfather carried her to her chambers after her mother

beat her.

The truth was she hardly ever made physical contact with anyone.

To want to reach out and caress someone was a feeling so new and disturbing it

benumbed her thoughts as well as her person for several seconds.

As she grappled with this unexpected sensation, the raven-haired man turned so

she could see his face. Abigail's breath seized in her chest. A day's growth of beard

outlined a strong jaw and firmly set lips on the most handsome face she had ever seen.

And the most frightening.

Because she knew with inexplicable certainty that this was the man she was to

marry. Power surrounded him like a mist that would never dissipate. No one but he could

be leader of the Sinclairs.

He turned his head, and she would have sworn he looked directly at her, if it were

possible. It was as if he knew she was watching him, but that could not be. The urge to

duck fully behind the curtain was strong, but she was still feeling the paralyzing effects of

her desire to touch him. And surely he could not see her in the dark of the cottage?

Was that cruelty or strength in his glittering eyes? There was knowledge. Logic

notwithstanding, he knew she was there. But how?

Unlike him, she did not stand in a clearing with no hindrance to the revelations of

bright moonlight. She was hidden almost completely by the window covering, and what

wasn't hidden should not have been distinguishable in the dim light, made darker by the